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“Never,” he grumbled with a huff.

She released a laugh as she came dancing for Elena. “And there’s my munchkin.”

She pulled Elena off Trevan’s back, swinging her daughter around and squeezing her tight.

“Look, M-m-mommy! Trevan got me an apple!” She held it out like a prize.

“An apple?!” She playfully gasped and turned a warm smile at Trevan, her fingers soft when she touched his chin.

His heart felt both heavy and like mush.

It was weird, wanting to be there with them a whole lot more than he was at his house.

This place that always smelled like heaven and was filled with so much love.

But he knew all of them had gone through a ton of bad stuff to get to that happy place, so maybe that’s what was going to happen for him.

“That’s awful nice of you,” she said.

“I don’t mind at all, Ms. Mercer.”

“The sweat dripping off your temple says otherwise, and it’s Christina, remember?” she teased and turned back to Elena, who she bounced in her arms. “Did you make your Trevan carry you the whole way home?”

She swung Elena around again.

Elena squealed and laughed. “I just like it the b-b-best so my legs don’t get tired, and my Trevan doesn’t mind at all because I’m light as a feather.”

“Is that right?”

“That’s right!” Elena shouted.

“Doesn’t feel that way to me! You’re about to break my arm, you’re getting so big,” Christina said as she set Elena onto her feet.

“That’s because my Trevan is r-r-really strong, and really, really tall because he can reach all the way up and get me an apple.”

Elena threw her hand holding the apple over her head and jumped as high as she could right before she popped up onto the stool at Meems’ side. “You n-n-need an apple for bakin’, Meems?”

“Well, that looks like a real special one, so I just might.”

Meems peered over at Trevan. Her expression was full of pride.

“That Trevan is always taking care of you, isn’t he, young one?”

“Mmhmm…because our best people always take care of us, and I have a lot of best people!”

“Me included?” Silas asked as he wandered deeper into the kitchen and snagged a cookie from a tray that was cooling on the stove.

“O’ course.” Elena almost rolled her eyes. “I’ve got all the b-b-best people, and we gotta feed ’em because they’re really hungry because they played with me the whole day.”

“Who’s hungry?” Meems asked, glancing between Silas and Trevan.

Their grandmother always looked like she knew something no one else did.

“Starving,” Silas said, though he nudged his chin in Trevan’s direction. “But we’d better feed Trevan first since he’s going to be out working in the yard for the rest of the day.”

Christina’s brow arched in question.

“He lost a bet, fair and square.”